Frontier reaches tentative deal with CT union

Communications Workers of America workers demonstrate outside the Norwalk, Conn. headquarters of Frontier Communications in mid-October 2019. The company reached a tentative agreement with its main Connecticut labor union for a new, two-year contract.

Photo: Alexander Soule

A union representing Frontier Communications workers reached the outline of an agreement for a new, two-year contract, which will include a buyout offer for an unspecified number of union members.

The Communications Workers of America represents some 2,100 Frontier employees in Connecticut, with CWA Local 1298 having staged a demonstration last week outside Frontier’s Norwalk headquarters to draw visibility to the negotiations. Members had authorized the union to call a strike in the event of any impasse, with the company and the union agreeing to extend the terms of the existing contract as they continued talks.

The sides reached an agreement late Saturday night during negotiations at Frontier’s New Haven offices, with the deal subject to a vote by members that will occur within the next few weeks. The agreement includes a general, 1.75 percent wage increase and a $300 bonus, with CWA Local 1298 indicating the deal will continue existing pension and 401(k) retirement benefits and with no cost increases or coverage changes to current medical plans.

According to CWA Local 1298, Frontier is promising to maintain its current union workforce, but with the agreement allowing it to transfer existing employees to lower paying jobs, with severance pay for those who choose not to accept new assignments.

“The No. 1 goal was to protect our jobs while they are financially struggling, and we achieved that goal and we maintained our wages, our medical benefits and pensions,” said Dave Weidlich Jr., president of CWA Local 1298, told Hearst Connecticut Media on Monday. “We’re going to be holding on — hoping and helping this company try to turn it around so we don’t get into any dire consequences down the road.”

If ratified by all sides, the contract is significant for Frontier, avoiding any interruption in services in its home state where it derived just over $800 million in revenue last year — about 9 percent of its total — while reporting an $11 million profit in the territory.

Under CEO Dan McCarthy, Frontier took a $5 billion loss in the second quarter of this year, with the company scheduled to report third-quarter results in early November but declining to field general questions from investment analysts on an accompanying conference call.

In a statement forwarded to Hearst Connecticut Media by a company spokesman, Frontier described the agreement as “equitable” that it would “better position Frontier to compete in a challenging and ever-changing marketplace.”

Weidlich described the negotiations as slow but cordial, with Frontier agreeing to guarantee job counts held by union members after last week’s noisy rally in Norwalk that lasted about 90 minutes. He said the biggest omission from the contract sought by CWA Local 1298 was health benefits for some people who had left the company prior to Frontier acquiring AT&T’s Connecticut operations in 2014.

Under a previous buyout negotiated by Frontier and CWA 1298, just over 100 Frontier employees took the money, with some retiring and others finding new jobs. The jobs board Indeed lists about that many open telecommunications jobs in Connecticut, from low-paying positions like call centers and retail wireless stores, to those with comparatively high compensation like network technicians.

Frontier has about 30 job openings in Connecticut, including for a few recruiting specialists in Norwalk.